MARKET REPORT

DOORSTEP lender Provident

Financial plunged 504p to 2361p as it sounded a profit warning following disruption from an overhaul of collections.

US approval for a long-acting attention deficit disorder drug boosted pharma heavyweight

Shire 89½p to 4460p. Housebuilder Berkeley Group firmed 67p to 3294p after its annual pre-tax profit rose by 53 per cent to £812.4million.

Fellow builder Bovis Homes gained 5½p to 923½p as new chief executive Greg Fitzgerald forked out nearly £2million for shares.

Its first deal to secure gas acreage in Bolivia failed to fire up

Echo Energy, 0.63p lower at 17.37p but Alexander Mining struck it 0.013p richer to 0.123p after positive news at a lithium joint venture. Investors checked in at easyHotel, up ½p to 106½p, after a first leasehold deal in Oxford.

Buy support from Investec with a 322p target lifted convenience food group Greencore 1p to 252p. Clean water technology firm HaloSource gushed 0.83p higher to 1.88p on an £8million joint venture in China.